I can agree that most of the things you mentioned need to be looked at and addressed for the various issues that they have.
However my ideas in addressing them are both similar to yours but also very different direction taken.
I don’t know if you’ve seen my various feedback posts but regardless, I would say that some critical elements need to be taken seriously when coming up with ideas.
Elements such as…
- Button Bloat
No one wants any additional unnecessary button to press. So ideas like making Idol of Yogg-Saron an additional button is already leaving a bad taste in my mouth and I’m sure others would echo the sentiment. - Pet management = lesser is better
Most Priest players and especially Shadow Priests are very against pet management.
It’s commonly accepted that if you want to manage a pet then go warlock or hunter or Unholy DK.
I think it’s fine as a set it and forget it button as it has been and at most syncing up your attacks to line up with its attacks/procs that make your own spells hit harder or grant an additional interaction. But that should be the end of it.
So I won’t post my entire feedback post here again, but I will pull out some comparisons to your ideas.
Granted, some my be more reliant on other talents being tweaked slightly to add synergy in order to make sense and should not be taken as a stand alone solution.
Personally, I think the direction taken to make Surge of Insanity work for both Mind Flay and Mind Spike and it just enhances damage is very dull and just detracts from more interesting talent options.
Instead, this would be my replacement.
Still triggers after Devouring Plague and is useful in any situation.
- Echoing Shadows (New 2 point talent)
40/80% of all your periodic damage dealt in the last 3 sec is dealt again, occurring after casting Devouring Plague.
Mind Blast hitting hard is tricky as we have dots dealing damage at the same time. So in order to make Mind Blast hit hard again, you need to negatively impact your dot damage capability in some shape or form.
This is the direction I took.
- Shadow Asgard (Choice with Thought Harvester)
Mind Blast consumes up to 12 seconds of your damage over time spells, dealing 100% of the damaged consumed.
Damage consumed grants Shadow Asgard [buff] for 12 sec causing Mind Blast to deal 200% additional damage.
I too think we should be able to “improve” Psychic Link.
But my method would be to do it via combat and not a direct talent.
I went with a dynamic method to enhance Psychic Link but not opposed to doing on a static level.
I choose to put this improved Psychic Link within the Hero Path section.
- Psionic Energy
- Holy: Healing done from your Holy Word spells generate a stack of Psionic Energy. Reaching 20 stacks fill you with power and causing you to erupt, dealing pulse healing to your allies within 20 yards every second for 3 seconds.
- Shadow: Damage dealt by your Shadow Word spells generate a stack of Psionic Energy. Reaching 20 stacks causes the next target to receive damage from your Mind Spells to erupt, dealing pulsing damage to every enemy within 20 yards every second for 3 seconds.
- Psionic Power
When Psionic Energy erupts, your Psychic Link damage and healing increases by 5% for 30 seconds. Stacking up to 3. - Psionic Force
Psionic Energy pulse deals 100% more damage and healing with each consecutive pulse.
So back in WoD, you gained a leveling up perk to make Mind Flay deal damage faster which in result made its channel duration shorter.
So going in that direction, I purpose this.
- Malediction (Redesign)
Your channeled spells deal damage 33% faster.- This would affect all channeled spells, including the Void Tendrils spawned by Idol of C’Thun.
- Void Torrent (Updated)
Channel a torrent of void energy into the target, dealing Shadow damage over 3 sec and causing your periodic damage effects on the target to deal damage 100% faster.
I agree that since the talents leading up to Idol of Yogg-Saron have Shadowy Apparition synergy talents, that Yogg-Saron should also play into that and the idea that you have to be in a long and arguably stationary location for the big dude to come out and be useful is just pathetic to be honest.
Instead, I went the direction of more ghosts and they now have an extra interaction.
- Idol of Yogg-Saron (Update)
Your Shadow Word: Death spawns a Shadowy Apparition for each target afflicted with Shadow Word: Pain. Shadowy Apparitions deal 20% of its damage to nearby targets. Max (5).
So I think having Mindbender replacing Shadowfiend should feel game changing. The biggest change itself is the more usage Mindbender allows.
Because of the higher uptime Mindbender has, I think it would be cool to really make that higher uptime meaningful in a game changing type of way. But at the same time keep it a set it and forget it (no pet management).
This is the direction I would like to see.
- Idol of Y’Shaarj (Redesign to be more interactive and game changing)
The fractured Mind of Y’Shaarj coalesces into the essences of 7 Prime Sha forms, empowering your powers of the Mind.
Summoning Mindbender unlocks the powers of all the prime Sha and empowering your Mind Spells, granting each an additional effect while Mindbender is active.- Echo of Anger: Mind Flay is castable while moving.
- Echo of Hatred: Mind Blast gains an additional charge.
- Echo of Violence: Mind Spike cast time is reduced by 50%.
- Echo of Despair: Mind Sear spawns a Shadowy Apparition each time a target is damaged from Mind Sear, Max targets (5).
- Echo of Fear: Mindbender attacks 20% faster and applies a stack of Shadow Vulnerability stacking up to 10 times, lasts 15 seconds.
- Shadow Vulnerability causes the target to take an additional 1% damage from your shadow spells. Upon reaching 10 stacks, your [non-boss] target becomes Horrified for 3 sec.
- Echo of Doubt: Mindgames duration is refreshed each time the target takes damage from your Mind spells.
- Echo of Pride: Mind Shift cools down 100% faster.
For a more in depth dive into my ideas, see link below…